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Marek's Disease

Overview

Cause / Transmission: A herpes-virus. Highly contagious. Spreads by bird-to-bird contact, by contact with infected dust and dander, and by darkling beetles and mealworms that live in the chicken house.Morbidity is 10-50% and mortality up to 100%. Mortality in an affected flock typically continues at a moderate or high rate for quite a few weeks.

Occurs mainly in chickens under 16 weeks of age. In late Marek's the mortality can extend to 40 weeks of age. Affected birds are more susceptible to other diseases, both parasitic and bacterial. The virus doesn’t survive the incubation process well and is not spread by hatching eggs. Immune transfer from the hen to the chick provides some protection to the chick for the first few days of life.

Different forms of Marek’s Disease:

Cutaneous form (skin form): Enlarged reddened feather follicles and white bumps on the skin that form brown crusty scabs.

Neural (nerve form): Progressive leg or wing paralysis - a typical leg-paralysis victim will have one leg extended forward and one leg extended back. A swelling of the sciatic nerve is the cause.. Other possible symptoms: Twisted neck, weight loss, labored breathing, eye lesions, vision impairment, diarrhea, starvation and death due to an inability to reach feed and water and to trampling by other chickens.

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